Chapter 55: Your Boy Saku Is Clever as Hell!
Most of the time, dinner at Saku's house was handled by Saki.
Today, however, they had a guest, so everything on the table had been ordered as takeout, generously paid for by the beautiful and magnanimous Mai-san.
Looking at the spread of delicious food, everyone immediately felt their appetite stir.
Saku, however, casually swept his gaze around the table and suddenly realized something.
Why did his house keep getting more crowded?
There were Utaha and Michiru, who were already tenants. Today, Mai had brought her friend Futaba Rio, while Saki had come with her best friend Shino.
That made six girls in total.
For some reason, Saku suddenly felt as though his house was getting a little cramped.
The moment he sat down, Mai naturally claimed the seat on his right.
Utaha reacted just as quickly and took the seat on his left.
Both did it with such complete confidence that the other girls, who hadn't sat down yet, froze.
Saki gritted her teeth.
'Damn it! Both seats beside Saku are taken! Those are supposed to be mine!'
Another day of playing the "useless wife."
She'd already fought both Mai and Utaha over this kind of thing before.
The result?
Crushing defeat every single time.
With each passing day, Saki felt her status in this "family" growing increasingly unstable.
Worse, her grand harem plan still hadn't made any meaningful progress because she had yet to convince Kiryuu Shino to cooperate.
Clearly, there was still a long road ahead.
Saki had suffered enough losses to know better than to explode again.
Michiru hadn't.
Especially not after she'd just taken the first step toward her dream together with Saku.
Right now, her head was full of thoughts about staying close to him.
So when she discovered that her seat had been stolen, Michiru didn't simply sit somewhere else.
She planted both hands on her hips and glared at Utaha.
"Utaha, that's not fair."
"That seat is mine."
Michiru had come downstairs together with Saku.
Naturally, she'd assumed the seat on his left would belong to her.
Who could've guessed Utaha would slip in ahead of her the moment her guard was down?
Utaha flicked her hair back without the slightest hint of guilt.
If anything, she looked rather pleased with herself.
"Oh? Is that so?"
She theatrically turned halfway around and carefully inspected the chair.
"Hmm..."
"Strange. I don't see your name written anywhere."
Utaha looked back at her.
"So how exactly is this seat yours?"
"Y-You...!"
Michiru pointed at her indignantly.
"I was the one beside Saku just now! This seat was obviously supposed to be mine. You deliberately cut in front of me!"
"You're not wrong."
Utaha calmly spread her hands.
"So?"
Michiru stared.
Utaha smiled.
"You didn't sit down fast enough. How is that my fault?"
"Next time, move quicker."
"Then nobody will steal your seat."
The two immediately began staring each other down, and the atmosphere around the dinner table turned strangely turbulent.
Mai watched the confrontation without attempting to stop it.
Instead, she was silently evaluating everyone's threat level.
Her conclusion came quickly.
Kasumigaoka Utaha was by far the most dangerous.
If nothing else, her willingness to take the initiative already put her ahead of most girls.
Saku might reject her once.
But what about the second time?
The third?
How many times could any man reject an attractive, talented girl who kept actively pursuing him?
Forget having an iron will.
Even literal stone could eventually be worn through by dripping water.
Unless Saku somehow stopped being a man, Mai didn't believe he could remain completely unaffected forever.
Still, Utaha's presence wasn't entirely bad for her.
As long as Utaha remained aggressive, the other girls would naturally focus much of their hostility on her.
In other words, Utaha was drawing fire on Mai's behalf.
Mai could stay quietly behind the scenes while keeping her own position secure.
Of course, her true foundation wasn't some petty dinner-table strategy.
It was maintaining her place in Saku's heart while continuing to support him and provide genuine help.
Affection mattered.
So did practical value.
Mai intended to hold firmly onto both.
Which meant that in the current situation, stepping forward personally would be a mistake.
She'd only invite everyone to gang up on her.
After reaching that conclusion, Mai quietly slipped a hand under the table and pinched Saku's thigh hard.
Then she gave him a meaningful look.
'Stop them.'
Saku had already been thinking the same thing.
He just hadn't expected Mai to suddenly attack his leg.
Pain shot through his thigh, nearly making him yelp.
"Hiss... All right, enough!"
He immediately raised his hands.
"It's just one seat."
"I'll give up mine. One of you can sit here."
Saku wasn't stupid.
There was no chance he was jumping into this fire pit.
Supporting either side would be wrong.
So he simply ignored the entire impossible choice and removed himself from the equation.
「Your boy Saku is clever as hell. You think I'm falling into some stupid choose-one-of-two trap?」
「When the choices are both bad, flipping the whole table is obviously the winning move.」
If he'd kept that second part to himself, perhaps everything would've been fine.
The moment everyone heard it, nearly every girl at the table mentally cursed him.
'This man is unbelievable.'
Mai: 'Wonderful. Truly worthy of you! I told you to stop the argument, and somehow you managed to screw me over too?!'
Utaha: 'You bastard. If you leave, what was the point of me fighting for this seat in the first place?'
Michiru: 'Seriously?! Saku, look at me! I'm your best buddy! Why aren't you taking my side?'
Saki: 'Good! Leave! Both seats beside you are supposed to be mine anyway. Shino, watch my eyes. Help me claim them later!'
Shino: 'You... I... This is so stupid!'
Futaba: 'Another Azusagawa Sakuta. No, this one's even more slippery. More importantly, are we actually going to eat? The food is getting cold.'
Everyone had their own agenda.
Unfortunately, once Saku decided to overturn the entire board and force a reset, nobody had a good counter.
Especially Mai.
Even though she hadn't wanted to step forward personally, she no longer had much choice.
She grabbed Saku's arm before he could stand.
"Enough."
Mai looked toward Utaha and Michiru.
"We're just having dinner together. There's no need to fight over a seat."
She paused briefly before changing tactics.
"How about this?"
"Michiru, sit here."
Mai stood.
"I'll give you my place."
Since staying quietly behind the scenes was no longer possible, she decided to switch strategies.
Win one person over while isolating another.
At the same time, it would let Saku see how considerate and mature she could be.
Two birds with one stone.
And frankly, a mere chair meant absolutely nothing.
If Mai couldn't sit beside Saku during dinner, she could always sit on his lap later.
From her perspective, that was practically an upgrade.
Michiru froze.
She absolutely wanted the seat beside Saku, but taking Mai's place somehow made her feel guilty.
After all, Mai was Saku's "girlfriend."
It was completely reasonable for her to sit beside him.
Michiru was still hesitating when Mai walked over, took her by the arm, and practically forced her into the seat on Saku's right.
「As expected of you, Mai-senpai. One move to calm Michiru down, another to shut down the fight, and nobody can even criticize you for it.」
「You resolved the whole mess while making yourself look considerate at the same time. How am I supposed to not reward you for that?」
Mai's smile stiffened.
Sometimes, she genuinely wished Saku could turn off that damn inner voice.
There were some things you were supposed to understand without saying aloud!
How was she supposed to maneuver when he kept exposing her entire strategy?
Still...
Since Saku understood her this well, Mai decided to generously forgive him.
As for that "reward" he'd mentioned?
That was another matter entirely.
He'd better not try to brush it off.
With that, the ridiculous dispute finally came to an end.
Everyone settled around the dinner table, and the earlier confrontation was silently buried as though it had never happened.
No one brought it up again.
But the way several girls looked at Mai had subtly changed.
There was now a little more caution in their eyes.
They'd all realized something.
This so-called "girlfriend" wasn't going to be easy to deal with.
Only two people at the table genuinely hadn't cared about the entire battle.
Saku.
And Futaba Rio.
And now that everything had finally quieted down, Saku's attention once again returned to the unfamiliar girl sitting at his table.
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